Shopping list 😁

[Nannysbees]

Started beekeeping in June. Bought the equipment for one hive, within three weeks bought a second hive as the recommendation is that you can compare the hives and of course if one fails you have another. It was definitely the right decision to have two. We have got a spare hive just in case we need the extra equipment but two hives are more than enough for us. We weren't able to join a course but found an amazing mentor in lisvane with his own shop stocked with everything we needed including high quality suits etc. The biggest headache has been decision making, over everything, so a mentor at the end of a phone is a must. But we have learnt an incredible amount,and still have an incredible amount to learn.

 

[richard_skinner]

Hey there....Just putting together my shopping list for my first hive

Have decided to get a National hive....they seem pretty standard for beginners....seems to have 2 supers and 1 brood box...queen excluder...etc...I was going to get a kit with frames and rails

Question is....is there any "must" when buying???

Also....what extra stuff should I get.....what did you wish that you bought before starting????

Join an association and they will assign you a mentor and guide you on purchases. They will also help with your first inspection, installing the bees and placement of the hive.

 

[elainemary]

Hey there....Just putting together my shopping list for my first hive

Have decided to get a National hive....they seem pretty standard for beginners....seems to have 2 supers and 1 brood box...queen excluder...etc...I was going to get a kit with frames and rails

Question is....is there any "must" when buying???

Also....what extra stuff should I get.....what did you wish that you bought before starting????

Once you’ve got to grips with all the excellent suggestions already made about equipment, you’ll need a good process and other kit to clean it all. You’ll spend a good amount of time doing this! At the beginning of your second season when you’ll need to change your floors, at the end of the season when you unite hives and also later in your beekeeping experience when you need to start changing combs.
Best to set up a proper work station. Here’s some good advice, first of a series of 4 very good blogs on how to clean and sterilise equipment as well as how to recycle wax and frames in the future

https://www.northumbrianbees.co.uk/...or-small-scale-beekeepers-part-one-equipment/

 

[Nick Lang]

Started beekeeping in June. Bought the equipment for one hive, within three weeks bought a second hive as the recommendation is that you can compare the hives and of course if one fails you have another. It was definitely the right decision to have two. We have got a spare hive just in case we need the extra equipment but two hives are more than enough for us. We weren't able to join a course but found an amazing mentor in lisvane with his own shop stocked with everything we needed including high quality suits etc. The biggest headache has been decision making, over everything, so a mentor at the end of a phone is a must. But we have learnt an incredible amount,and still have an incredible amount to learn.

Thank you....I've just been to Nature's Little Helpers website....I didn't know they were there....Lisvane is only a half hour drive from me.....I notice they sell nucs of bees.....did you get your bees from them???

 

[The Poot]

Reading all of the above, it really does make me wonder.......but it’s all worth it
The very best of luck to you.

 

[elainemary]

More than one colony is inevitable ... once you have TWO it's a disease ... you NEED more bees ... no matter how hard you try not to you will GET more bees ... and more kit ... and more honey ... and more bees... and more kit ... and more gadgets .. and more kit ... and bigger machines .... and a bigger shed and more bees and more kit ... oh ... and did I say .... MORE beess. You will need earplugs ... not for you but for all your friends because you will bore them to death with news, stories, facts and general information about your bees and keeping bees in general and every conversation you will have will be steered towards beess ... and everyone in the area, once they know you keep bees, will find you swarms to collect and you will have MORE Bees .... but no friends left except other beekeepers who will talk incessantly about bees !

& your SO starts complaining to you & anyone who will listen that they’re a ‘Bee widow’

 

[pargyle]

Once you’ve got to grips with all the excellent suggestions already made about equipment, you’ll need a good process and other kit to clean it all. You’ll spend a good amount of time doing this! At the beginning of your second season when you’ll need to change your floors, at the end of the season when you unite hives and also later in your beekeeping experience when you need to start changing combs.
Best to set up a proper work station. Here’s some good advice, first of a series of 4 very good blogs on how to clean and sterilise equipment as well as how to recycle wax and frames in the future

https://www.northumbrianbees.co.uk/...or-small-scale-beekeepers-part-one-equipment/

There are some fundamental flaws in this blog:

1. As the frames are removed from my polystyrene nuc boxes and become empty, they are first put on the cleaning table and as much of the physical wax and propolis debris is removed carefully with a narrow wallpaper scraper. No need to remove propolis .. just scrape any excess comb off.

2. After cleaning the next step is to sterilise it in the tub of bleach solution. I bought this 60L tub from Amazon. It has blanked off handle holes. There is also a lid available, but I use a shallower tub as a lid. This is also handy for storing tools and other bits and pieces. Why is this necessary ? I deplore this desire to remove all vestiges of pathogens ... there AREN'T USUALLY ANY THERE. Unless the colony has had one of the Foulbroods totally unneccessary.

3. To prevent pathogen build-up, brood comb in colonies is replaced regularly. By using brood comb replacement, bailey comb change or shook swarm, at least every two years. OMG - When are they going to learn ... Brood frames and comb do NOT need to be changed automatically every two years ... what a waste of bee effort and a totally unnecessary process. Change combs when they are past their useful life not when an arbitrary time frame of "less than" 2 years dictates.

There are more in this blog - I lost the will to live reading this much passed on TRIPE !!

 

[elainemary]

There are some fundamental flaws in this blog:

1. As the frames are removed from my polystyrene nuc boxes and become empty, they are first put on the cleaning table and as much of the physical wax and propolis debris is removed carefully with a narrow wallpaper scraper. No need to remove propolis .. just scrape any excess comb off.
Good point, agree. Propolis is anti-bacterial and beneficial eg on brood box walls. It does need scraping off though when it builds up, making it hard to slide frames / conduct hive inspections smoothly & quickly.

2. After cleaning the next step is to sterilise it in the tub of bleach solution. I bought this 60L tub from Amazon. It has blanked off handle holes. There is also a lid available, but I use a shallower tub as a lid. This is also handy for storing tools and other bits and pieces. Why is this necessary ? I deplore this desire to remove all vestiges of pathogens ... there AREN'T USUALLY ANY THERE. Unless the colony has had one to the Foulbroods totally unneccessary.
Not easy to sterilise polynucs in anything other than bleach. Good for killing chalk brood spores and any other fungal spores which can turn boxes black in storage

3. To prevent pathogen build-up, brood comb in colonies is replaced regularly. By using brood comb replacement, bailey comb change or shook swarm, at least every two years. OMG - When are they going to learn ... Brood frames and comb do NOT need to be changed automatically every two years ... what a waste of bee effort and a totally unnecessary process. Change combs when they are past their useful life not when an arbitrary time frame of "less than" 2 years dictates.
Good practise to change combs every 2-3 years to keep free of pathogens, retain bee cell size (rather than buildup with cocoons). Agree that common sense should prevail e.g a food comb that hasn't had much brood in will last longer than combs in the centre of the nest

There are more in this blog - I lost the will to live reading this much passed on TRIPE !!
The point is, get into good habits early and look after your equipment and bees (the advice given is based on the NBU unit leaflet on sterilising & cleaning equipment). Read around and choose methods to save time & that fit with your values / ways of managing your bees.

 

[Apple]

Bees... please try to buy locally bred ones
A good and usually helpful person to contact would be you local Bee Inspector, as they are generally enthusiasts, a font of information and know all ( well most) of the people also keeping bees local to you... also please register on BEEBASE.
Sheds... never big enough, so as with the smoker buy the biggest you van afford!
OUT APIARY... guess you now know that this is another nice accessible and secure site to keep your bees.
It needs to be at least THREE MILES from you main site. so you can move bees around to relocate etc.

Other than a pot of snake oil and a jar of fairydust... you will need some.. GOOD LUCK!

Chons da

 

[Nick Lang]

Bees... please try to buy locally bred ones
A good and usually helpful person to contact would be you local Bee Inspector, as they are generally enthusiasts, a font of information and know all ( well most) of the people also keeping bees local to you... also please register on BEEBASE.
Sheds... never big enough, so as with the smoker buy the biggest you van afford!
OUT APIARY... guess you now know that this is another nice accessible and secure site to keep your bees.
It needs to be at least THREE MILES from you main site. so you can move bees around to relocate etc.

Other than a pot of snake oil and a jar of fairydust... you will need some.. GOOD LUCK!

Chons da

Cheers....Nannysbees commented earlier about a bee keeper/seller/shop about 20mins to half hour from me....they are offering nucs for sale....I will give them a call and have chat with them I think

 

[Erichalfbee]

There are some fundamental flaws in this blog:

1. As the frames are removed from my polystyrene nuc boxes and become empty, they are first put on the cleaning table and as much of the physical wax and propolis debris is removed carefully with a narrow wallpaper scraper. No need to remove propolis .. just scrape any excess comb off.

2. After cleaning the next step is to sterilise it in the tub of bleach solution. I bought this 60L tub from Amazon. It has blanked off handle holes. There is also a lid available, but I use a shallower tub as a lid. This is also handy for storing tools and other bits and pieces. Why is this necessary ? I deplore this desire to remove all vestiges of pathogens ... there AREN'T USUALLY ANY THERE. Unless the colony has had one of the Foulbroods totally unneccessary.

3. To prevent pathogen build-up, brood comb in colonies is replaced regularly. By using brood comb replacement, bailey comb change or shook swarm, at least every two years. OMG - When are they going to learn ... Brood frames and comb do NOT need to be changed automatically every two years ... what a waste of bee effort and a totally unnecessary process. Change combs when they are past their useful life not when an arbitrary time frame of "less than" 2 years dictates.

There are more in this blog - I lost the will to live reading this much passed on TRIPE !!

Where to start!
Tripe indeed

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At the beginning of your second season when you’ll need to change your floors,

why?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

There are some fundamental flaws in this blog:

1. As the frames are removed from my polystyrene nuc boxes and become empty, they are first put on the cleaning table and as much of the physical wax and propolis debris is removed carefully with a narrow wallpaper scraper. No need to remove propolis .. just scrape any excess comb off.

2. After cleaning the next step is to sterilise it in the tub of bleach solution. I bought this 60L tub from Amazon. It has blanked off handle holes. There is also a lid available, but I use a shallower tub as a lid. This is also handy for storing tools and other bits and pieces. Why is this necessary ? I deplore this desire to remove all vestiges of pathogens ... there AREN'T USUALLY ANY THERE. Unless the colony has had one of the Foulbroods totally unneccessary.

3. To prevent pathogen build-up, brood comb in colonies is replaced regularly. By using brood comb replacement, bailey comb change or shook swarm, at least every two years. OMG - When are they going to learn ... Brood frames and comb do NOT need to be changed automatically every two years ... what a waste of bee effort and a totally unnecessary process. Change combs when they are past their useful life not when an arbitrary time frame of "less than" 2 years dictates.

There are more in this blog - I lost the will to live reading this much passed on TRIPE !!

What an absolute load of tripe (I also made the mistake of venturing into part 2!!) another beekeeping by numbers self publicised expert spreading the usual disinformation to beginners.

 

[Erichalfbee]

What an absolute load of tripe (I also made the mistake of venturing into part 2!!) another beekeeping by numbers self publicised expert spreading the usual disinformation to beginners.

I know. I despair sometimes.
There are associations that recommend shook swarming every year too.
Poor bees.
( saying all this with my moderator hat off, by the way.)

 

[Swarm]

Cheers....Nannysbees commented earlier about a bee keeper/seller/shop about 20mins to half hour from me....they are offering nucs for sale....I will give them a call and have chat with them I think

Hello Nick, welcome to the forum and a wonderful new life with bees.
There will be bees available far closer to Pontypool than Lisvane Know what you are buying, anything offered in April will be a made up nuc, headed buy a bought in queen, plenty of those around every year.
If you contact Gwent Beekeepers, I'm sure they will know a source of bees near you and there may even be members who can help you obtain bees, whether an over Wintered nuc (not advisable, IMO) or newly raised queen in a new nuc.
I would highly recommend you try to find a decent beekeeper, offer to help out and gain some valuable experience as mbc suggested.
Gwent Beekeepers used to hold meetings and talks in Goytre, only up the road from you.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Why wouldn’t you advise an overwintered nuc?

 

[Swarm]

Because it's going to build up pretty fast and catch out a novice keeper. Same applies to the early nucs 'headed by...'
Regardless of my views on foreign queens, they are usually those prolific types and not the best choice for someone with little or no experience of how quickly a colony can expand.
Working with a local beekeeper, difficult with covid I admit but doable, the novice gets some hands on at the 'exciting' time and takes a nucleus of bees into Winter, with guidance and is better prepared and ready for the next season.
I lost count of the number of prime swarms around this season and mostly with marked, ginger queens.

 

[elainemary]

why?

Way i was taught, to give a clean floor in Spring. Some hives are very clean with no dead bees over winter & if so, i leave as is. Others have dead bees on the floor, so I like to remove these and give a clean floor & sterilise the old one with blow torch if wood & washing soda , then bleach if polyhive. As i have WBCs sometimes all sorts of gunk accumulates over the course of a year between the outer lifts and the brood box, so giving a clean floor allows me to clean this up.

 

[Beegarden]

Love all the comments! You might think Nick Lang, that they are all joking, but it's all so true - just like any other 'hobby,' eg photography etc, buying new and potentially better equipment and tools is normal in your strive to do your best for the 'girls' but also because you become addicted to the rewards. The colony will give back ten fold, a feeling of peace and wonder just watching them 'working their socks off.

I may have missed it, but before you read up as much as you can during the Winter, get your name put on a waiting list for a nuc (queen and a starter load of workers) . Do it now! A final note, during lockdown, you are still allowed to travel to collect bees, food and equipment as they are classed as livestock. Good Luck!

 

[Apple]

A final note, during lockdown, you are still allowed to travel to collect bees, food and equipment as they are classed as livestock

Hallelujah!
AND... Georgie Porgie Eustice, our Toryboy MP and Lord of DEFRA said to me that BEEFARMERS are now classed as propper farmers!